


a sudden, beautiful surprise

by ebonynightwriter



Series: Shallura Week 2016 [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Canon Universe, Cute, F/M, Flowers, Friendship, Fun / Humor, Gen, One-Shot, Planet Exploration, Shallura Week 2016
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-28
Updated: 2016-08-28
Packaged: 2018-08-15 04:49:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,110
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8043163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ebonynightwriter/pseuds/ebonynightwriter
Summary: In a moment of peace, the team lands upon a peaceful planet to gather supplies. They set off in different directions, looking to uncover the various foodstuffs that spread across the land. With Allura at his side, Shiro discovers something that surprises her, as well as himself.





	a sudden, beautiful surprise

**Author's Note:**

> **A/N:** Woo! My first ~~published~~ fic of Voltron! I’ve actually written down a lot of ideas for this pairing, a few of which are close to completion, but I haven’t gotten around to putting them up here yet, as I was waiting until I get a better grasp on these characters (and getting back to the swing of writing in-general). They’re surprisingly hard to write in a setting where they’re not taking charge or giving out orders to save the universe, but I’m sure I’ll get better on that with time! In the meantime, enjoy this small attempt at something on the calmer side of things. :)
> 
> -.-
> 
>  **[shallura week (2016) // day 1](http://ebonynightwriter.tumblr.com/tagged/mine:%20shallura%20week%202016)** · discovery
> 
> -.-

In the distance, the castleship floats just below the atmosphere line, disappearing between red-tinted clouds and giant, floating chunks of rock. An assortment of vines and crawling roots droop from their hard bases, and at the top, trees with trunks twisted in spirals grow and thrive. It looks like something from a dream – something Shiro thinks he wouldn’t have seen in a million years of space-travel. But as he flies his small speeder along the planet’s surface, the wind rushing by as fields of yellow grass part beneath the engine’s purr, Shiro also thinks it kind of feels like home. Like _Earth_.

Now _that’s_ something he thought he’d never feel again.

Hunk’s voice breaks the silence.

 _“Okay, so everyone knows what they’re looking for, right?”_ he asks through the com. _“Because this place has a lot of the same elements found on Earth, but we need to be careful we don’t pick up something bad that’ll, you know, give us radiation poisoning or a rash or—”_

 _“Hunk, relax,”_ Pidge says. _“Just use the scanner me and Coran made, and we’ll be fine.”_

 _“Yeah, just wait!”_ Lance chimes in. _“I’m going to get so much grub, you won’t know what to with it – whoa!”_

 _“Hey, watch it!”_ Keith yells.

_“ **You** watch it—”_

“Okay, pipe down you two,” Shiro says. “We’re supposed to be out gathering supplies, not bicker and crash ‘cause we’re not looking where we’re going.”

 _“Yeah, yeah…”_ Lance sighs. _“Got it.”_

“Good. Now, if everyone looks over their areas closely, we should be able to find enough to fill the greenhouse and storage rooms with a good amount of supplies. I want everyone back to the castle by sunset – we don’t want anyone getting lost out here.”

 _“And remember the old saying, paladins!”_ Coran says. _“’Spikes are not nice’, but the inside of the spikes may prove to be a tasty treat full of nutrients! So, if you find anything like that, be sure to wrangle it nice and good, and really twist it round to—”_

Shiro shakes his head, lowering the volume on his suit’s radio as Coran continues to ramble. He stops the speeder at the peak of a hill, removing his helmet to take a good look at the landscape that reminded him so much of home. Things were so peaceful here, it made him wonder how many other planets were like this, just the sun setting and rising day after day – how much life continued to _exist_ peacefully – free and unhindered.

And how many like it the Galra had taken and ripped apart at their whim.

The thought leaves a bitter taste in his mouth, bile rising from within. He presses his helmet into his lap for a moment, fingers curling on the smooth material before he lifts it—

“Shiro!”

Bewildered, he stops, the helmet floating in front of his face. He scans the area in front of him one more time, swearing he heard something, but it wasn’t from the com—

“Over here!”

He looks to his left, where the hill dips and the opening of a forest lies between outcrops of stone. Allura stands beyond the shade of the massive trees, arms folded over her suit. He turns the speeder toward her, bringing it to a slow stop at her feet.

“Princess,” he says, sweeping a leg over the vehicle. “What are you doing here? I thought you and Coran were going to stay on the ship.”

“I thought I’d join you,” she replies. “We need all the help we can get if we’re to gather enough flora and food for the agricultural room.”

“And besides,” she says, going to the side his speeder. “It’s been a while since we’ve been on a planet like this. It would be a shame if we didn’t enjoy some scenery every once in a while.”

Shiro nods, hand sliding to his hip.

“Right,” he says softly. Allura digs within the storage pods, pulling out the scanner the team had made. She holds it to the forest, waiting as the blue display carefully looks over the area, lighting up with patches of red and green.

“According to the scanner, this area should be rich with ingredients,” she says, placing the device back on the spacecraft. “There should be more than enough here to make for a bountiful load.”

“Let’s try to stay close,” Shiro says as she steps toward the forest. “Never know what we could find in there.”

“If we _do_ find something, I’m sure we’ll be able to handle it,” she says.

Shiro smiles, nods again, and without another word, they venture into the forest. Trees circle around them, covering his view of the sky in a thick mass of dark leaves. He struggles to see, but as they go deeper, light shines from a different direction – sunlight spreading through a large crevice in an outcrop of rock, part of the same stretch Shiro had seen beside the forest’s entrance. Shiro approaches the lit area, crouching down beside the base of a tree whose roots hang over a drop-off a few feet from the rocky barrier. Hidden among them grows small bunches of orange and green fungi.

“Looks like we found something,” he says, leaning in to observe the new plant. “I’ll get some samples ready for the ship.”

As he digs his fingers through the dirt, Allura walks around the trees. Placing a hand on one of the spiraling trunks, she feels the smoothness of its bark, and lifts her head to view the thickly placed leaves.

When Shiro hears them rustle, he looks behind to see Allura with her foot on a trunk.

“H-hey!” he yells. “What are you doing?!”

“Climbing, obviously,” she responds, going higher into the tree. “There could be something up here.”

His mouth opens wordlessly, keeping a sharp eye as she disappears into the thick folds of leaves. He tilts and bends, waiting for something to happen. Then, when he thinks nothing’s to come, something falls, and lands at his feet.

“See?” Allura says, sticking her head between the leaves. Shiro reaches down to pick up the object. Some kind of fruit, or nut as big as his hand, with dark purple skin and small, blue spikes sticking out from all around it. He holds the strange fruitseed to his face as Allura drops from the tree, giving it a deep sniff, but found no smell. He raises a brow.

“Maybe we should wait till we’re back on the ship to see what—”

_Crunch._

Shiro’s head snaps up in a blur as Allura takes a bite out of the strange food. Juice runs down the sides of her mouth as she chews slowly, brow pinched in deep thought. Then, her eyes seem to light up, widening with joyous glee. She looks at the mark made in the fruit with a puckered grin, hasting herself to swallow.

“I can’t believe it, this tastes just like the neruka seeds we had on Altea!” she exclaims, holding the fruit out to him. “Shiro, you must try this!”

He hesitates for a moment, but takes it from her, biting into the spiked orb. His eyes widen with surprise as the spikes fold soft against his tongue – like petals on a flower, and his mouth fills with a sweet liquid.

“Amazing!” he says, wiping the juice from his lips. “It tastes just like the peaches!”

Allura smiles heartedly. “Then we should get some more! I know Coran would love a taste as well!”

Shiro takes another bite as Allura reaches behind her back. Pulling off a small ring that was attached to her suit, she turns it around a few times until she finds a sequence of buttons along its surface. It expands as she holds down one of them, and after pressing another arrangement a blue barrier flickers, covering the center of the ring. Taking the unbitten fruit from Shiro’s hand, she releases the ring into the air, and drops the food through the barrier. Shiro is surprised as the fruit fails to hit the ground, but instead is suspended in midair by the device, like some kind of advanced basket.

Allura puts her hands on her hips.

“I’ll climb back up and drop the fruit down to you,” she says, looking to him. “Just placed them in here, we can attach it to your speeder once we’re finished.”

“Got it,” he replies. “Be careful.”

She nods, and starts up the tree, disappearing into the leaves again. Within moments, fruit begins to fall to the ground. Shiro scrambles to pick it all up, placing the spiked orbs into the floating basket handfuls at a time. As he picks more from the ground, he hears a quick rustle move through the trees, followed by a small yelp.

“Allura?” he calls. “Are you alright?”

“Fine!” her voice answers. “Just lost my footing for a momen—”

Shiro hears the unmistakable _snap_ of a branch breaking, and within seconds she breaks through the leaves. He throws the fruit in his hands to the ground, running full speed to the base of the tree. He holds his arms out and she lands in them with an _oof!_ and his back bends backwards as he nearly loses his balance, teetering on the edge of the drop-off. Lurching forward, he sighs with relief as he settles on his feet, planting them firmly—

— on the round surface of the fruit.

They go backwards. Right over the edge.

Their screams echo through the air as they fall to the ground. Shiro lands hard on his back, Allura secured in his arms. His grip goes slack and for a moment neither of them move, still recovering from the sudden fall. With a light groan, Shiro drops his head into the grass as Allura slides off him.

“You… okay?” he asks, taking deep breaths to get his wind back. Allura stands, looking herself over for a moment.

“Yes,” she says, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear. “And yourself?”

“I’ll live,” he says, sitting up. “Though my back may be a little sore tomorrow…”

She kneels beside him, brow pinching together. “Sorry,” she says, lowering her head a bit. “I lost my footing in the tree—”

“It’s fine,” he replies, lifting his hand. “This grass is pretty soft. Could’ve been worse.”

She gives a heavy sigh, then smiles.

 _“—is everyone okay?”_ Coran’s voice comes suddenly through the com. _“I thought I heard a scream.”_

“Everything’s fine, Coran,” Allura says. “Shiro and I just had a bit of a fall.”

_“Had a what?! Are you hurt? Should I come get you?”_

“That’s alright,” Shiro says loudly. “We’ll make it back okay.”

_“O-okay… well, as long as you’re sure…”_

With a wave of her hand, the com dies, and Shiro and Allura both look back to the drop-off.

“It’s not very high,” he says, placing a hand behind his head. “We should be able to scale up the side.”

“Are you sure you’re fit to move?” Allura asks.

“Yeah,” he says, getting to his feet. “I should be…”

He pauses, the words trailing in the wind as a shadow creeps over the cracks in the rocks. Normally it wouldn’t have phased him in the slightest, but as the light grows dimmer, something incredible happens – right at his feet. Some of the grass spread around them begins to _open_ , revealing bright, white petals that illuminated with a soft light. Shiro’s breath hangs in his throat, and he stays perfectly still, not wanting to disturb the sudden flowers, while Allura leans over the closest one, cupping her hands around the base of its blub.

“Starlight flowers,” she says, her voice barely above a whisper. “Incredible. I didn’t think there’d be any left after all this time…”

Shiro crouches beside her.

“Were these on Altea too?”

She shakes. “No, but my father used to bring them home during his travels. They’re a difficult flower to find, they only bloom in darkness. Any other time they have the appearance of a common weed, or in this case, grass.”

She reaches down the stem and plucks it. The flower wilts in her hand, and she smiles softly, sighing a bit.

“I’d forgotten,” she says. “They do that as well.”

Shiro reaches into the dirt, digging out a flower – roots and all. The glow remains, and Shiro guides it into her opens hands.

“There,” he says. “That should do it.”

Allura smiles, eyes shining in the flower’s light.

“Thank you.”

.

.

.

In the end, they return just before sunset with a holo-basket half-filled with fruit, a couple of odd colored mushrooms, and a clump of grass, still attached to the dirt.

 


End file.
